


Powerless

by The Terror of My Ways (sealandreich)



Series: Winden ’86–’87 [3]
Category: Dark (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:53:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29036517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sealandreich/pseuds/The%20Terror%20of%20My%20Ways
Summary: November 1986. Ulrich is arrested by Egon Tiedemann. He realizes that he’s powerless to protect the people he loves, most of all Katharina.
Relationships: Katharina Nielsen/Ulrich Nielsen
Series: Winden ’86–’87 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001136
Comments: 10
Kudos: 8





	Powerless

Egon, that bastard, looked so smug and satisfied. Ulrich wanted to punch him in the face. How dare Egon arrest him! How dare Egon take him, the remaining Nielsen son, away from his parents after failing to find anything out about Mads! 

Ulrich’s thoughts changed from anger to worry when he thought of his parents. His mother hadn’t been herself in days, and Ulrich was beginning to think that she’d never be the same again. Would she be able to handle the pain of losing her one remaining son so soon after she lost the other? Dad would be no help at all. He might as well not be there at home. It would be all the same if Dad was off to wherever he had gone on that one day, that day out of all days that he should have been at home.

But as much as Ulrich hated how his father had been acting lately, he knew it wasn’t Dad’s fault. If he had been at home, would that have saved Mads? If Dad had been more active in the search for Mads, perhaps that would have made a difference, but it wasn’t his fault that Mads was still missing. Egon fucking Tiedemann, that incompetent, drunken fool of a man, that’s who Ulrich blamed. It was Egon’s job, not Dad’s, to investigate missing persons cases.

“Rot in hell, Egon Tiedemann,” he muttered. Ulrich didn’t believe in hell, but if it existed Egon Tiedemann was sure to end up there. “May maggots eat your flesh away till the end of time.”

* * *

Ulrich had thought that he felt powerless when Mads didn’t come home. He had thought that he felt the most contempt for Egon Tiedemann, that disgrace, that a human being could feel. But Ulrich had been wrong. This was another level of powerlessness. This was another level of incompetence, corruption, vengefulness, and cruelty from Egon. And what Ulrich felt for Tiedemann now—well, no human could ever hope to capture such hatred in words.

Ulrich knew that Egon had to be behind this, this sham of an arrest. This was a miscarriage of justice! A perversion of the law! And what was worst of all was that Egon Tiedemann would most likely get away with it. The Tiedemanns were a family with power. Sure, the mayor wasn’t a Tiedemann, but the chief of police and the new director of the nuclear power plant were both Tiedemanns.

Rape, the rape of his girlfriend Katharina—that was what those crooked cops had charged him with. Rape! It was character assassination! Egon Tiedemann made a great show of acting like he truly believed it. Ulrich wasn’t so naïve. Egon fucking Tiedemann could act as dumb as he wanted. That didn’t change his true motives. He was out looking for a scapegoat. Either Egon was too incompetent to find out what happened to Mads, or he didn’t give a damn. At this point Ulrich was beginning to suspect that the Tiedemanns had some sort of blood feud going on against the Nielsen family.

Egon Tiedemann opened the window into the cell. He started to speak, but Ulrich wasn’t having it.

“You think you can get away with abusing your power? Think you can silence and discredit your enemies?” Ulrich shouted. “Go to East Berlin; I’m sure the Stasi would love to have you!”

Egon Tiedemann scowled and shut the window. 

“You’ll get what’s coming to you,” Ulrich yelled, loud as he could. He would never let anyone silence him, let alone the laughingstock of Winden. “You think there will be any words of praise in your obituary? No, not a single word, nothing! You’re a disgrace to your profession!”

There was no response, and Ulrich hadn’t expected one. But he was sure that Egon had heard him. Egon seemed determined to prove him guilty, before Ulrich had even done anything. It felt like Egon was always watching him, just waiting for him to slip up. 

* * *

Ulrich cried when Katharina came to talk to him. He cried when he saw her bruised face. He cried when Katharina said she’d get him out of there. He felt so powerless. He was powerless to get out of jail, he was powerless to stop Katharina’s mother from hurting her; he was completely and utterly powerless. 

The bruises on Katharina’s beautiful face were constant reminders that he was inadequate, incompetent, and powerless to protect her. Just as he had been powerless to find Mads, powerless to bring his brother home, and powerless to bring life back to his mother’s eyes, he was powerless to protect the girl he loved. No, he was powerless to protect anyone he loved. He never would be able to protect them, not now, not ever, not if things continued like this.

* * *

The young man had his gun pointed at Katharina. His eyes were cold. Ulrich had no doubt about it; that man would not be afraid to shoot at them. The real question was whether he would shoot to kill. But this wasn’t what scared Ulrich the most. 

More than anything, he was scared of what Katharina might do and what she might be thinking. For a terrible moment, Ulrich could tell that she was considering what it would be like to die, weighing the benefits of life and death in her mind. Had Katharina’s life truly gotten to the point that she wouldn’t mind being killed right here, shot dead in a field like an animal? He could see how Katharina might have gotten to this point. It was a miracle she hadn’t lost the will to live long ago, now that Ulrich thought about it.

She was a step away from letting herself die and a step away from choosing to live another day. Katharina did not move. Ulrich did not take his eyes off her as he took a step back, away from death. Katharina turned to look at him. If she didn’t know what choice to make, then Ulrich would show her. He took another step—this was his decision; he chose to live another day! Out of love for him, Katharina went through hell, and she would go through it again. He had to trust that she would not fail him now.

* * *

The edge of the woods—they were safe now. Ulrich turned to Katharina and tried to find the words to express his worry.

“Katharina,” he said, “I love you and I don’t want you to lose the will to live. You can’t give up! You can’t let Winden win!” Ulrich sounded way more emotional than he expected himself to, but if there was any time to be emotional, any time to be teary-eyed, then this was it.

“What are you talking about?” said Katharina.

Ulrich took her hands in his. “It’s going to be okay. It won’t be like this forever. We’ll run away together. We don’t need to stay here. There’s nothing for you here but pain. I’ll take you somewhere far away from here.”

“Stop talking like that.” Katharina pulled away from him, but her tone was now serious. She knew what he was talking about. She knew she couldn’t ignore it. “You shouldn’t leave your mother right now. She won’t be able to handle it.”

Sometimes Ulrich thought Katharina appreciated his own mother more than he did. Knowing what he did about Katharina’s mother, he understood why.

“I do have one thing to live for in Winden,” Katharina said, voice shaking. “I have you.”

**Author's Note:**

> It’s not exactly relevant, but here are two songs I associate with Katharina and Ulrich:  
> \- [I Want Out](https://youtu.be/FjV8SHjHvHk) (Helloween)  
> \- [Return of the Warlord](https://youtu.be/SR39birKwwo) (Manowar)


End file.
